I first started this blog back in 2008 when I traveled from Northern Alberta Canada to Mazatlan Mexico to spend the winter submerged as much as possible in Mexican culture. As I travel back and forth now I will try to keep this updated so you can follow me on my journeys.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Cake and chickens

I bought
these really really cute cake pans in Mexico and was just itching to use them
as soon as I got home.

I also did a quick inventory of my freezer and pantry
and noticed that someone needs to eat a LOT of Saskatoons in this house, what
was I thinking last fall? So I cruised my favorite recipe site here http://www.tastespotting.com/category/food/27

And found a
recipe for a Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake that looked like it would change
up easily. I turned it into a Raspberry (had some of those too) Saskatoon and
not so chocolate cake. Of course by the time I was done altering the recipe it
didn’t even resemble the original anymore. I always have to mess with a recipe,
I can’t help myself. I always use whole wheat flour and I always use brown
sugar instead of white and I always use less sugar (a lot less) Then it said to
grease and flour the pan first, usually I will grease and then dust with
powered Vanilla but I had none (forgot to bring some back this year) so I
decided to dust with cinnamon, then I had too much batter and the pan over
flowed making it look like I would not be able to get the cake out, at this
point I thought maybe the cinnamon had been a mistake (serves me right) but
when that moment came to tip it over, I held my breath and it came out in one
piece and the smell of hot cinnamon floated out of the pan...oh my! Wonderful.
Brilliant idea! Sometimes I get lucky. What I a pretty pretty cake to take to a
friend’s house.

I held my breath when I tipped this over.....

whoooo, can you smell the cinnamon?

Whipped cream would have been nice as well

I love going
grocery shopping in my freezer; this is why we gardeners go through allllll
that work in the fall. So we don’t have to go grocery shopping. It thrills me
to make a meal and not have to got to the store for anything. My first meal at home
was a crock pot of pumpkin soup. I took a jar of frozen pumpkin, a baggie of
frozen tomatoes, a little container of frozen chicken broth, a head of garlic
from my pantry (they wintered well) and a handful of little onions, put it all
in the pot, added a little bit of dried peppers. After it was cooked I stuck my
hand mixer in there and pureed it making it all creamy.

Today I took
out some chicken breast, ( organic homegrown chicken) cut it up and put it in a
casserole dish, added a baggie of frozen tomatoes, a baggie of frozen green
beans, some onions, a few cubes of chicken broth, some frozen chili sauce and
soon I had this....and just cooked up some homemade noodles and there was
another meal that didn’t require anything from the store.

Shopping in my freezer is the best

Yummm yummm

Speaking of
not going to the store, member how I often talk about my fantasy of having
chickens in my backyard, that may soon happen. Imagine my excitement when I
read in the local newspaper that the town has given a resident permission to
have 3 chickens and some rabbits in her back yard....IMAGINE! I was so excited
and raced over to the town office first thing. Turns out there are a few hoops
one must jump through first, well ...I’m an athlete from way back and am
willing to do the jumping. I must also go to the council meeting and plead my
case (and jump through hoops in front of them like a circus...I guess). Next
council meeting is on April 24th, I am ready. Can you imagine....one
more thing for me to go on and on and on about on this blog, chickens! And
eggs! I can’t wait, oh the chiffon cakes we’ll bake in my new cake pans,
because one cannot afford to make chiffon cake unless one has ones own
chickens....you need a gilzillion eggs. (at least) In the mean time we should
figure out what we will name our 3 chickens because that’s most important you
know. Of course I have to stay true to my geekness and so I have been cruising
the web looking at all kinds of house options for my chicks...they will have
only the best you know. Like this;

Or this;

There are many beautiful ideas on the web for making very attractive chicken coops.

These
chickens are going to be an enhancement to the community, not like some people’s
shittin, digging, messy, barky dogs....not saying names or anything, just sayin
is all. I have nothing against dogs I just think it high time dogs and chickens
were given equal rights. .....I can see that this will require a few trips to
the hard ware store, ol’ Blue will be so excited, he loves going to the hardware
store on Saturday morning, throw in a trip to the dump and it’s a Saturday we
both remember for a long time. Ok now I’m just talking crazy talk.

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Winter 2013-2014

About Me

A renaissance women minus the long red dress, likes to drive fast and walk slow, loves the smell of cut grass and puppies, coffee and tea, new crayons and carne asada and the feel of clean white sheets, ponies noses, grass, ocean, sand and warm sun and blank white paper. Loves lush green moss, walking barefoot, fishing, eating and laughing, pretty tea cups, the rain, the ocean, the rivers and the trees and the birds and the bees, knitting and reading, fur and wool, sudden bursts of loud music, cake, dirt, sand and the sky, planes, trains and bikes and cars and boats and things that smell like adventure.